8.  Following its declaration of independence from the former SFRY in March 1992, a brutal war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More than 100,000 people were killed and more than 2,000,000 others were displaced as a result of “ethnic cleansing” or generalised violence. Numerous crimes were committed during the war, including those committed by the present applicants. The following local forces were the main parties to the conflict: the ARBH[1] (mostly made up of Bosniacs[2] and loyal to the central authorities in Sarajevo), the HVO[3] (mostly made up of Croats) and the VRS[4] (mostly made up of Serbs). The conflict ended in December 1995 when the General Framework Agreement for Peace (“the Dayton Agreement”) entered into force. In accordance with that Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two Entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.
9.  In response to atrocities then taking place in the territory of the former SFRY, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“the ICTY”) as an interim institution[5]. In 2002, in order to ensure that its mission was concluded successfully, in a timely way and in coordination with domestic legal systems in the former Yugoslavia, the ICTY began devising a completion strategy[6]. That strategy was endorsed by the UN Security Council[7] and the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (they enacted the necessary statutory amendments and concluded agreements with the High Representative – an international administrator appointed under the Dayton Agreement). A vital component of the strategy was the setting up of war crimes chambers within the State Court consisting of international and national judges (see paragraphs 34-36 below).
10.  Mr Maktouf was born in 1959 and lives in Malaysia.
11.  On 19 October 1993 he deliberately assisted a third party to abduct two civilians in order to exchange them for members of the ARBH forces who had been captured by the HVO forces. The civilians were freed several days later.
12.  On 11 June 2004 the applicant was arrested.
13.  On 1 July 2005 a Trial Chamber of the State Court found him guilty of aiding and abetting the taking of hostages as a war crime and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment under Article 173 § 1 in conjunction with Article 31 of the 2003 Criminal Code.
14.  On 24 November 2005 an Appeals Chamber of that court quashed the judgment of 1 July 2005 and scheduled a fresh hearing. On 4 April 2006 the Appeals Chamber, composed of two international judges (Judge Pietro Spera and Judge Finn Lynghjem) and one national judge (Judge Hilmo Vučinić), convicted the applicant of the same offence and imposed the same sentence under the 2003 Criminal Code. As regards the sentence, it held as follows (the translation has been provided by the State Court):
“Considering the degree of criminal responsibility of the accused and consequences of the criminal offence, as well as the fact that the accused was an accessory to the commission of the criminal offence, and considering the mitigating circumstances in favour of the accused, the Chamber applied the provisions on reduction of punishment and reduced the sentence to the maximum extent possible, applying the provision of Article 50 § 1 (a) of the [2003 Criminal Code], sentencing him to imprisonment for a term of five years, being of the opinion that the pronounced sentence can fully achieve the purpose of punishment and that the pronounced sentence will influence the accused not to commit other criminal offences in future.”
15.  Following the applicant’s constitutional appeal, on 30 March 2007 the Constitutional Court examined the case under Articles 5, 6, 7 and 14 of the Convention and found no violation of the Convention. The decision was served on the applicant on 23 June 2007. The majority decision reads, in the relevant part, as follows:
“42.  The Constitutional Court points out that section 65 of the [State Court Act 2000], the initial text of which was imposed in a Decision taken by the High Representative and subsequently endorsed by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, provides that during the transitional period, which may not exceed five years, the Panels of Section I for War Crimes and Section II for Organised Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption are to be composed of national and international judges. The Criminal and Appellate Divisions may be composed of several international judges. The international judges may not be citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina or any other neighboring state. International judges are to act as panel judges in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Witnesses and Vulnerable Witnesses of Bosnia and Herzegovina and may not be criminally prosecuted, arrested or detained, nor are they liable in civil proceedings for an opinion expressed or decision made in the scope of their official duties. 43.  The High Representative ‘... in the exercise of the powers vested in the High Representative by Article V of Annex 10 (Agreement on Civilian Implementation of the Peace Settlement) to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ... under which the High Representative shall facilitate, as the High Representative deems necessary, the resolution of any difficulties arising in connection with civilian implementation..., noting that the communiqué of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council issued at Sarajevo on 26 September 2003 stated that the Board took note of the UN Security Council Resolution 1503, which, inter alia, called on the International Community to support the work of the High Representative in setting up the war crimes chamber..., noting the Joint Recommendation for the Appointment of International Judges signed by the Registrar of the Registry ... and President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina...,, [and] bearing in mind the relevant provisions of the [State Court Act 2000],’ on 24 February and 28 April 2005, took Decisions on the Appointment of International Judges Finn Lynghjem and Pietro Spera to Section I for War Crimes of the Criminal and Appellate Divisions of the [State Court]. 44.  Under the aforementioned Decisions on Appointment, international judges are to serve for a term of two years and are eligible for reappointment as prescribed by law. International judges may not discharge duties which are incompatible with their judicial service. All other requirements concerning the judicial duty referred to in the [State Court Act 2000] apply to these appointments to the greatest extent possible. The international Registrar of the Registry shall inform the High Representative of any event which may prevent the judge from discharging his/her duties. During the mandate, the judge is to comply with all standards relating to professional conduct as prescribed by the [State Court]. The appointed international judge is to discharge his/her duties in accordance with the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina and take decisions on the basis of his/her knowledge [and] skills and in a conscientious, responsible and impartial manner, strengthening the rule of law and protecting individual human rights and freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Convention.
... 46.  The competences of the Divisions of the [State Court] to which international judges are appointed include, beyond any doubt, certain matters derived from international law. The acknowledgment of the supranational nature of international criminal law, established through the case-law of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Military Tribunals, the Tribunal in The Hague and the Tribunal for Rwanda, also includes international criminal tribunals. This certainly includes the situation in which a certain number of international judges are appointed to national courts. The High Representative appointed international judges to the [State Court] in accordance with the powers vested in him according to the UN Security Council’s resolutions, adopted in accordance with Chapter VII of the UN Charter and the Recommendation of the Registry pursuant to the Agreement of 1 December 2004, which was also signed by the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council; it is particularly important that the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, an independent body competent to appoint national judges, was involved in the procedure preceding the appointment. 47.  The Constitutional Court holds that the international judges who were members of the Panel which rendered the contested verdict were appointed in a manner and in accordance with a procedure which complied with the standards concerning a fair trial provided for in Article 6 of the European Convention. In addition, the [State Court Act 2000], the Agreement of 1 December 2004 and the decisions on [their] appointment created the prerequisites and mechanisms which secure the independence of [the] judges from interference or influence by the executive authority or international authorities. Judges appointed in this manner are obliged to respect and apply all the rules which generally apply in national criminal proceedings and which comply with international standards. Their term of office is defined and their activities are monitored during this period. The reasoning behind their appointment was the need to establish and strengthen national courts in the transitional period and to support the efforts of these courts in establishing responsibility for serious violations of human rights and ethnically motivated crimes. It is therefore aimed at securing the independence and impartiality of the judiciary and administering justice. Even the fact that the manner of appointment was changed by the subsequent Agreement of 26 September 2006, so that the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina has become responsible for the appointment of international judges, does not in itself automatically imply that their original appointments, in the manner provided for at the time of the contested verdicts, were contrary to the principles of independence of the court in terms of Article 6 § 1 of the European Convention. The Constitutional Court holds that the appellant failed to submit convincing arguments and evidence in support of the allegations relating to a lack of independence on the part of the international judges. As to the appellant’s allegations concerning the lack of independence of the national judge, on the ground that he is a person with ‘insufficient experience’, the Constitutional Court finds that these allegations are prima facie ill-founded and do not require any extensive examination. Taking all of the above into account, the Constitutional Court concludes that the appellant’s allegations concerning the lack of independence and related violation of the standards relating to the right to a fair trial under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6 of the European Convention are unfounded.
... 60.  One of the appellant’s key arguments refers to the relationship between the criminal proceedings in issue and Article 7 of the European Convention, namely the fact that, as the appellant stated, he was sentenced under the [2003 Criminal Code] rather than under the [1976 Criminal Code], valid at the time of the offence, which provided for a more lenient sanction.
... 65.  In this particular case, the appellant acknowledges that, under the regulations applicable at the material time, the offence for which he was convicted constituted a criminal offence when it was committed. However, he expressly refers to the application of the substantive law in his case and examines primarily the concept of a ‘more lenient punishment’, i.e. ‘more lenient law’. He considers that the [1976 Criminal Code], in force when the criminal offence for which he was convicted was committed, and in respect of which, inter alia, the death penalty was prescribed for the severest forms, was a more lenient law than the [2003 Criminal Code], which prescribes a punishment of long-term imprisonment for the severest forms of the criminal offence in question.
... 69.  In this context, the Constitutional Court finds that it is simply not possible to ‘eliminate’ the more severe sanction applicable under both the earlier and later laws, and apply only the other, more lenient, sanctions, with the effect that the most serious crimes would in practice be inadequately punished. However, the Constitutional Court will not provide detailed reasons or analysis of these regulations, but will focus on the exemptions to the obligations arising under Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention, which are regulated, as is generally accepted, by Article 7 § 2. 70.  In such a situation, the Constitutional Court notes that Article 7 § 2 of the European Convention refers to ‘the general principles of law recognized by civilised nations’, and Article III (3) (b) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina establishes that ‘the general principles of international law shall be an integral part of the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Entities.’ It follows that these principles constitute an integral part of the legal system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, even without the special ratification of Conventions and other documents regulating their application, and thus also include the 1993 Statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the former SFRY. 71.  Further, the Constitutional Court draws attention to the fact that the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of an international agreement and, while this fact does not diminish the Constitution’s importance, it clearly indicates the position of international law within the legal system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that a number of international conventions, such as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949) and the Additional Protocols I-II (1977), have a status equal to that of constitutional principles and are directly applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It should be mentioned that the former SFRY was signatory to the said Conventions, and that Bosnia and Herzegovina, as an internationally recognised subject which declared its independence on 6 March 1992, accepted all of the Conventions ratified by the former SFRY and, thereby, the aforementioned Conventions, which were subsequently included in Annex 4, that is, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 72.  The wording of Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention is limited to those cases in which an accused person is found guilty and convicted of a criminal offence. However, Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention neither prohibits the retrospective application of laws nor includes the non bis in idem principle. Further, Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention could not be applied to cases such as those referred to in the United Kingdom’s War Damages Act 1965, which amended with retrospective effect the common-law rule granting compensation for private property in certain wartime circumstances. 73.  The Constitutional Court notes that Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention concerns criminal offences ‘under national or international law’. The Constitutional Court also notes, in particular, the interpretation of Article 7 provided in a number of texts dealing with this issue, which are based on the European Court’s position that a conviction resulting from a retrospective application of national law does not constitute a violation of Article 7 of the European Convention where such a conviction is based on an act which was a crime under ‘international law’ when committed. This position is particularly relevant in respect of the present case, and of similar cases, given that the main point of the appeal refers to the application of primarily international law, that is, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) and the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949) and the Additional Protocols I‑II (1977), rather than to the application of one or another text of criminal law, irrespective of their content or stipulated sanctions. 74.  In addition, with regard to the retrospective application of criminal legislation, the Constitutional Court stresses that Article 7 of the European Convention was formulated immediately after World War II with the particular intention of encompassing the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations, where the notion of ‘civilised nations’ was adopted from Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the case-law of which is generally recognized as the third formal source of international law. In other words, the Statute of the International Court of Justice is applicable in respect of member states of the ICJ, and the rules established by it are regarded as a source of law, which concern even municipal authorities. Both the Statute of the International Court of Justice and Article 7 of the European Convention exceed the framework of national law, and refer to ‘nations’ in general. Accordingly, the Constitutional Court holds that the standards for their application should be looked for in this context, and not merely within a national framework. 75.  The Constitutional Court further notes that the travaux préparatoires refer to the wording in paragraph 2 of Article 7 of the European Convention, which is calculated to ‘make it clear that Article 7 does not have any effect on the laws which were adopted in certain circumstances after World War II and intended for punishment of war crimes, treason and collaboration with the enemy, and it is not aimed at either moral or legal disapproval of such laws’ (see X v. Belgium, no. 268/57, Yearbook 1 (1957); ... compare De Becker v. Belgium no. 214/56), Yearbook 2 (1958)). In fact, the wording of Article 7 of the European Convention is not restrictive and must be construed dynamically so to encompass other acts which imply immoral behaviour that is generally recognized as criminal under national laws. In view of the above, the United Kingdom’s War Crimes Act 1991 confers retrospective jurisdiction on the UK courts in respect of certain grave violations of the law, such as murder, manslaughter or culpable homicide, committed in German-held territory during the Second World War 76.  In the Constitutional Court’s opinion, all of the above confirms that war crimes are ‘crimes according to international law’, given the universal jurisdiction to conduct proceedings, so that convictions for such offences would not be inconsistent with Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention under a law which subsequently defined and determined certain acts as criminal and stipulated criminal sanctions, where such acts did not constitute criminal offences under the law that was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed. On 4 May 2000 the European Court of Human Rights issued a decision in the case of Naletilić v. the Republic of Croatia (no. 51891/99). It follows from that decision that the applicant was charged by the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia with war crimes committed in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that he submitted complaints that were identical to those of the appellant in the present case, i.e. he called for the application of ‘more lenient law’. He argued that the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia stipulated a more lenient criminal sanction than the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and called for application of Article 7 of the European Convention. In its decision, the European Court of Human Rights considered the application of Article 7 and emphasised the following: ‘As to the applicant’s contention that he might receive a heavier punishment by the ICTY than he might have received by domestic courts if the latter exercised their jurisdiction to finalise the proceedings against him, the Court notes that, even assuming Article 7 of the Convention to apply to the present case, the specific provision that could be applicable to it would be paragraph 2 rather than paragraph 1 of Article 7 of the Convention. This means that the second sentence of Article 7 paragraph 1 of the Convention invoked by the applicant could not apply. It follows that the application is manifestly ill-founded ... and, therefore, must be rejected ...’ 77.  Finally, the Constitutional Court points out that the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Trials were conducted in 1945 and 1946, after World War II, in respect of crimes that were only subsequently, i.e. by the Geneva Convention, defined as acts amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, etc. Aggressive war was defined as an ‘international crime’, as confirmed by the International Law Commission in its Yearbook of 1957, Vol. II. Related discussions on the principle of nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege were also held at that time. This is also valid in respect of the 1993 Statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the former SFRY. 78.  It is quite clear that the concept of individual criminal responsibility for acts committed contrary to the Geneva Convention or appropriate national laws is very closely related to that of human rights protection, since human-rights and related conventions concern the right to life, the right to physical and emotional integrity, prohibition of slavery and torture, prohibition of discrimination, etc. In the Constitutional Court’s opinion, it seems that an absence of protection for victims, i.e. inadequate sanctions for perpetrators of crime, is not compatible with the principle of fairness and the rule of law as embodied in Article 7 of the European Convention, paragraph 2 of which allows this exemption from the rule set out in paragraph 1 of the same Article. 79.  In view of the above, and having regard to the application of Article 4a of the [2003 Criminal Code] in conjunction with Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention, the Constitutional Court concludes that, in the present case, the application of the [2003 Criminal Code] in the proceedings conducted before the [State Court] does not constitute a violation of Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention.”
16.  The relevant part of the dissenting opinion of Judge Mato Tadić, attached to that decision, reads as follows:
“Pursuant to Article 41 § 2 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. 60/50), I hereby give my separate dissenting opinion, in which I dissent from the opinion of the majority of the Judges of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the aforesaid decision, for the following reasons:
...
It is my opinion that the more lenient law should be applied before the domestic courts, i.e. the law which was in force when the criminal offence was committed. It is not easy to give an answer as to which law is more lenient, and this legal issue is much more complex than it appears. Taking into account around ten criteria that have been developed through theory and practice, one may conclude that in the instant case the prescribed penalty is a key factor which is relevant to the question of which law is the more lenient. Given that the same criminal offence existed (Article 142 of the [1976 Criminal Code]) under the criminal legislation of the former Yugoslavia, which Bosnia and Herzegovina inherited by its 1992 Decree, and which provided for a penalty of five years’ imprisonment or the death penalty, while the new criminal legislation applied in the instant case (Article 173 of the [2003 Criminal Code]) provides for a penalty of ten years’ imprisonment or long-term imprisonment, the basic question is which law is more lenient. At first sight, the [2003 Criminal Code] is more lenient, since it does not provide for the death penalty. However, taking into account that subsequent to the entry into force of the Washington Agreement and the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994, the death penalty was abolished, as was merely confirmed by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1995, and taking into account the positions of the ordinary courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Entities and the Brčko District (Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Supreme Court of the Republika Srpska and Appellate Court of the Brčko District) that the death penalty was not to be pronounced (this position was also taken by the Human Rights Chamber in the case of Damjanović and Herak v. Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), it appears that the 1992 law is more lenient. According to the above-mentioned court positions and the law, the maximum term of imprisonment that can be pronounced for this criminal offence is 20 years.
Reference to Article 7 § 2 of the European Convention is irrelevant in the instant case. Article 7 § 2 of the European Convention has the primary task of providing a basis for criminal prosecution for violations of the Geneva Conventions before the international bodies established to deal with such cases, for example the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and to provide a legal basis for cases pending before domestic courts where the domestic legislation failed to prescribe the actions in question as criminal offences. In other words, this is the case where the legislature failed to include all of the elements characterising the said offences as referred to in the Geneva Conventions. This case does not raise that issue. The criminal offence in question existed in the domestic legislation, both when the offence was committed and at the time of trial, and therefore all of the mechanisms of criminal law and safeguarded constitutional rights should be consistently applied, including the rights guaranteed under the European Convention. The Naletelić case is irrelevant here, because it concerned an international prosecutor who accused [the applicant] before an international tribunal which had been established on a special basis and is vested with the powers defined by the Resolution of the United Nations and its Statute; it does not apply national legislation, but rather its own procedures and sanctions/penalties. If it were otherwise, a very small number of accused persons would respond to summons for proceedings before that court. Thus, I am of the opinion that the position of the European Court of Human Rights in the Naletelić case was absolutely correct, but that this position cannot be applied in the instant case.
I consider that extensive reference to an international court is absolutely unnecessary, such as reference to its jurisdiction, etc., since the issue here is simply the domestic court conducting a trial in compliance with national legislation, and does not involve a case which was transferred to an international tribunal.
For the most part, the Naletelić decision deals with history (Nuremberg, Tokyo) and, generally, an international aspect which is completely unnecessary in the instant case, because our national legislation, as pointed out above, incorporated this criminal offence and, when the offence was committed, the sanction was already prescribed, unlike the Nuremberg case. Moreover, the appellant is not challenging the aforesaid. It is in fact the appellant himself who pointed out that the national legislation had the incriminated acts coded as a criminal offence and sanctioned, and the appellant is only asking that it be applied. He also stated that, on account of the failure to apply Article 142 of the inherited [1976 Criminal Code] instead of the [2003 Criminal Code], there had been a violation of the Constitution and of Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention.
Wishing to keep this explanation brief, I will recollect the opinion of Mr Antonio Cassese, the esteemed professor of Florence State University, who was appointed President of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. In a 2003 document entitled ‘Opinion on the Possibility of Retroactive Application of Some Provisions of the New Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Professor Cassese concluded as follows: ‘Finally, let us deal with the issue whether the [State Court] should apply the more lenient sanction in the event of a crime for which the new criminal code prescribes a graver penalty than that envisaged by the former law. The reply to this question can only be affirmative. This conclusion rests on two legal bases: first, there is a general principle of international law according to which, if a single crime is envisaged in two successive provisions with one imposing a less strict penalty, that penalty should be determined according to the favor libertatis principle; secondly, this principle is explicitly mentioned in Article 7 § 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, wherein it is stated that no heavier penalty shall be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed. Accordingly, the [State Court] should always apply the more lenient penalty whenever there is a difference in length of penalty when the former is compared with the new criminal provision. It is clear that retroactive application of criminal code is related to the penalty only and not to other elements of this Article.’
...
For the aforesaid reasons, I could not agree fully with the opinion of the majority which is presented in this decision.”
17.  On 12 June 2009 the applicant completed his sentence and left the country soon afterwards.
18.  Mr Damjanović was born in 1966. He is still serving his sentence in Foča Prison.
19.  On 2 June 1992, in the course of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he played a prominent part in the beating of captured Bosniacs in Sarajevo, in an incident which lasted for one to three hours and was performed using rifles, batons, bottles, kicks and punches. The victims were afterwards taken to an internment camp.
20.  On 17 October 2005 a Pre-Trial Chamber of the State Court decided to take over this case from the Sarajevo Cantonal Court, where it had been pending for years, in consideration of its sensitivity (the case concerned torture of a large number of victims) and the better facilities available for witness protection at the State Court (a higher risk of witness intimidation at the Entity level). It relied on the criteria set out in paragraph 40 below and Article 449 of the 2003 Code of Criminal Procedure.
21.  On 26 April 2006 the applicant was arrested.
22.  On 18 June 2007 a Trial Chamber of the State Court convicted him of torture as a war crime and sentenced him to eleven years’ imprisonment for that crime under Article 173 § 1 of the 2003 Criminal Code. An Appeals Chamber of the same court upheld that judgment on 19 November 2007. The second-instance judgment was served on the applicant on 21 December 2007.
23.  On 20 February 2008 the applicant lodged a constitutional appeal. It was dismissed as out of time on 15 April 2009.